If

If the Lord had not been on our side, when enemies rose up against us . . . 

 - From Psalm 124

We're supposed to keep our faith, our trust, and our loving spirit, no matter what. We are supposed to expect to be persecuted. As bad as the last twenty-five years have been, in terms of the the decay of our freedoms of speech, it's nothing compared to the torture and death that is secretly wished upon us, by our detractors.

Nevertheless, we are human, and we hope to escape the horrible fate that has already visited many of our countrymen and women. Mobs attacking innocent bystanders . . . dragging people out of their vehicles and beating them to a pulp . . . children being shot in the inner cities and beyond.

Nobody wants to deal with violence. The world is so sick, it reserves it's most horrible treatment, for the nicest people, by re-inventing goodness itself, into a crime against the State.

We hope that God will just protect us, in the worst of times. We pray for it. And we expect it. Since the moment that Cain picked up the first murder weapon, God's enemies have had it out for His people. It's not just a friendly "agree to disagree" for the most ardent of them. They want us silenced . . . and they do mean a literal rendering of the word "silenced."

When we think of enemies "rising up" against us, it presents an image of a force of people, emerging from out of nowhere. We have become complacent in our times . . . thinking that, basically, the world (or at least our world) was mostly civilized and we could count on forever being able freely to think, and discuss, whatever we wanted to. But it turns out there is always something insidious just beneath the surface. We can't see them . . . but they are there, and when they rise up, it's from out of nowhere.

But there's an "if," and it's a big "if." If the Lord had not been on our side. Notice that's it's not us that chose His side. He chose our side. That's the first key. The second is that He's on our side even before our enemies rise up . . . He knows their plans long before even they do. And thirdly, they will have no effect on us. Their plans will come to nought. It's possible that God is constantly foiling their plans. He's at work constantly. The rare exception to the normal state of things under God's care, is the eruptions in our cities this summer. Those people would have burned civilization to the ground a long time ago, if the Lord had not been on our side.

This phrase, "If the Lord had not been on our side" is so important, that the Psalmist repeats it. He pulls a Matt Hook ("Let me say that again!").

It's a great phrase to add to your daily prayers. It's something to be mindful of constantly.

If the Lord had not been on our side.